"Research into systems thinking in a Civil Engineering department has led to a different conception of systems practice that deviates from traditional systems engineering. It is grounded in research applicable to the aerospace industry and large systems integration projects. The conception points out the need for a wider grounding of engineering education in social science generally, in a system that can be called Soft Engineering. This includes injecting the learning from Management Science, Soft Operational Research (Soft OR) and Problem Structuring Methods (PSMs) into engineering education, with a view to better equipping the next generation of engineers with the knowledge, especially methodological, that they will need to deal with ever more complex socio-technical systems"-- Provided by publisher.